Day 2 - Training Day 1

Its going to be a long one!

Well, it was my first day to dive the Blue Hole, which means my first look at the hole and man what a place!

There are so many atheletes here already that we are having to schedule when we dive and also ensure that we have enough people to act as safety divers too, allowing for rest days in peoples training schedules etc.

The Kiwi's teamed up this time, so Kathryn, Will and myself headed down at 10am.

Picture this. You drive down some narrow dirt tracks to get to this sheltered bay, the bay is approx 300m across. You can see water breaking in the distance and there is a bit of a strong wind (apparently unusual). You can only see a shallow white bay. To the left is a rock cliff. Will walks down and around the cliff so I follow him. As I walk around the corner the blue hole is there. Its like a dark blue round circle with white sand funnel into the hole.
The Hole itself where the platform is only 25m across. The platform is in the centre and big enough to support 3 or 4 people on it. Will has set it up with a fish finder so we can track the divers progress during their dive.

We suit up while the other divers finish off their dives, clean up and head back to shore.
I have never experinced such a small swim from the shore in order to get to the deep water, I am used to having to swim 300-400m off shore to get to at least 80m depth, today it was about 10 meters - if that and the bottom is 200m below!

Today the visibility is not great. Usually its around 30+m of clear viz, but due to the onshore winds the hole has had the sand pushed up into it so its a murky as all hell.

We all swim over to the platform with all our gear. Joy is with us and swimming like she has always been diving (usually she shys away from the water as she has had a fear of it for quite some time)

Kathryn is the first to dive. Things do not go well for her on this dive as she had trouble with her entry, but she pushes on despite this gets to the plate at 48m. Kathryn came up clean but says that she feels marginal.

My turn. I have decided that since its my first dive here and I am still very tired from the trip to get here, I will also only dive today to 48m. I am pretty excited and rush my breath up. I head down and its not feeling great, but I am safe in the knowledge that its only 48m. Its also the first dive with the new Suunto D4 Dive watch (thanks mum and dad!) . I have the Suunto Mosquito dive watch on as well as a backup. At 30m the D4 chimes 3 times. I am tense waiting for the thermacline - but there was none. I am so used to diving in the lake where the thermacline shoots you with a huge chill, but there is nothing like that here to worry about. Time to mouth fill, then the Mosquito goes off, thats my backup. I relax now in and start to free fall, because my anxiety has melted away. Now my D4 goes off again, great, thats 45m so I am preparing to turn, then smack, I hit the plate with my hands. Bit of a surprize there, I didnt expect to get there so soon, so I must have been dropping a little quicker than I thought. I grab with my left and pull to get back up. Now I start to sprint because of the fright I got from hitting the plate, I am no longer in the completly relaxed state I was earlier. No matter, I am flying up to the surface. I spot my safety diver and keep on heading up. I clear the surface and take my goggles off. It was an easy dive physically, but mentally it was a hard dive.

Williams turn now. He is doing a free immersion to 104m ! he does his prep and dives. ohh no... he's coming up and under the platform! I go to grab him, but realize that he might panic if I grab him, so I stick my hand on the top of his head. SMACK his head hits my hand which then hits the platform. That hurt. I now grab him and drag him out from under the platform. He aborted his dive because he forgot to fill his liquid goggles. About 10 mins later he is ready for his next attempt.

Will is warming up again doing his breathup and we realised the sonar isnt working, without the sonar working we cannot track his progress during his dive. We told him " dont go, we cant get the sonar to work" and while he actually moved his hand at the time, which we thought was a signal that he heard us, it wasnt, he did not not hear us at all and while we are fussing over the sonar, Will starts his dive.

We scrambled to get watches and safety ready. I waited on the line until approx 2 mins 30 seconds before I go. As we cant confirm his position by Sonar, we have to estimate where he is based on his expected dive times. I dropped to 20m and waited. I could feel him coming up, then I could see him. He's going well. I swim up with him to the surface and he completes his Safety Protocol. It was a clean dive, despite all the drama above the water. I was so amazed. I have never witnessed anyone diving so deep before.

With all the diving for the day done, I went for a look at the edge of the blue hole to see if I could find the Tarpian Fish that reside there. Apparently they grow upto 2 1/2m long and small ones are greater than 1 m. They are predatory fish like Baracuda so I wanted to check them out! But it was too murky and I couldnt see anything, but I did see a shaddow lurking. It was less than 1m in length though so might not have been one.
anyhow, that was that.

I cant wait until the water clears. This place must have to be the top freediving places in the world!